This album signals a welcome return
to form by Costello, after last year’s disappointing
collection of cover versions, Kojak Variety. Indeed,
it takes us right back to the stripped-down rawness
of his mid-eighties meisterwerks, King of America
and Blood and Chocolate, after the lush and somewhat
over-produced recent offerings, Spike and Mighty Like
A Rose. Costello has always been at his best when
playing with The Attractions, arguably the best backing
band in the world.

But it is to the artistry and craft
of his songwriting, as always, that one’s attention
is drawn. He manages to combine instantly hummable hook-lines
within cleverly constructed arrangements in a way which
is beyond most of his peers. Stand out cuts here include,
judging from the first five or six listenings at least,
the title track itself, ‘Complicated Shadows’,
‘You Bowed Down’ and ‘It’s Time’,
but I know the CD will rarely leave my player over the
next couple of months, since there are new delights
to be discovered and savoured at every turn.
Costello has such a facility at knocking out a tune
that it is easy to forget just how good he actually
is. This album reminds us once again that Elvis is King.